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Topic: small hive beetle question (Read 1517 times)

this has come up in the past & i'm wondering if there any new opinions out there. i have 2 bee yards. at this time of year the hives at my home gets full morning sun, mid afternoon shade, & near full sun in the late afternoon & evening. there are a few beetles, mostly around the inner covers & in the division board feeders. there are 6 hives here & i'm not seeing them in every hive & never more than 5 or 6 at a time. the other yard is behind a green house at a local nursery. it's in the shade most of the day. the beetle population is notably higher there. there have never been hives there before so they either found my hives or i brought them with the hives i brought & they've grown from there. the 2 hives i had there last year did not survive the winter so there was break this spring til 2 weeks ago where there were no bees at this location but the beetles are back strong. they'd not over running the hives yet. it also concerns me about moving them as i might contaminate a new yard.

As I understand SHB can and do fly about 20 miles. I wouldn't worry about moving the bees. A couple years back I lost a couple of hives to them. What a mess!After that I bought an IPK beetle trap from green beehives and it worked so well I now have them on all my hives. It's extremely rare for me to see a live one now although the trap will have plenty of dead ones. I've also not seen a varroa mite since I got these bottoms. If you buy one the shipping will eat your lunch so I buy five at a time to keep the cost down.

They are there, whether bees are or not. They fly up to 5 miles and then can multiply without bees. The only thing you can do to help is get them into the sun. Wherever you take them, there are already SHB there, so you won't contaminate the area with something not yet there.

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moving the hives at the nursery is not an option at this point. I'm working on another location. it's not just the beetles, the bees do not seem to do well in general at this location. even though it's a nursery there's not a lot of forage. the new spot I'm working on has a lot of dutch white & sweet yellow clover. I'm going to treat the soil under the hives with rock salt & diatamaceous earth. in a month or so i'll treat with nematodes.

iddee- so you are saying the small hive beetles are pretty much everywhere just lurking & waiting for an opportunity? is there anything else that they infest? how do thet sustain themselves otherwise. most searches i've on shb provide vague & generic data. i'm going to get more serious about studying theit biology.

iddee- so you are saying the small hive beetles are pretty much everywhere just lurking & waiting for an opportunity? is there anything else that they infest? how do thet sustain themselves otherwise. most searches i've on shb provide vague & generic data. i'm going to get more serious about studying theit biology.

iddee- so you are saying the small hive beetles are pretty much everywhere just lurking & waiting for an opportunity? is there anything else that they infest? how do thet sustain themselves otherwise. most searches i've on shb provide vague & generic data. i'm going to get more serious about studying theit biology.

They have been found to feed on fruit. In particular the melon family. Yes ther are most likely there bees or not.

My first year of beekeeping I tried to keep bees @ my home. There are no beekeepers for miles around to my knowledge. Closest one was about 10 miles. My yard gets a good bit of shade and is near an oak bottom. I could not keep bees in my yard.

Points to remember:-Locate hive where they get a lot of sun-Don't leave space in the hive the bees can't cover- foundation not as critical but empty space on a hive that contains in particular pollen is a disaster-Keep hives strong -Look for bees that chase the beetles when you lift the top and they run- some bees are not aggressive to the beetle and just ignore the shb. The bee more aggressive to them will corner them and corral them.-If you see a few don't worry. When you see lots wandering around on the comb and empty spaces worry.-When populations are low traps will help some but not necessary if you keep bee count up.-I have found ground drench to be a waste of time.

With the above said- a sunny location, with solid ground, and high bee count covering space has been my best defense.

sc-bee; Did the SHB do your hives in or did you just move them? I notice fatbeeman/straightshooter (youtube) has a lot of hives in the shade. He uses political signs to control his beetles. He takes Crisco grease to seal up one end, then he puts boric acid in the middle and seals up the other end with Crisco. The Crisco is supposed to be an attractant.

I'm trying the cd trap today until I can get something better (if I need something better). What I did was take boric acid with Crisco grease and made a paste. I chipped off some of the cd clear edge on two sides so beetles can enter. I then used black electrical tape to cover the clear part and tape it shut. I'll keep yall posted on the results. I put two of them in the bottom entrance. The bait won't come out because of the paste. I may put one or two on the top tomorrow. I got off work too late to fool with it today.

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As SC said, they have alternate means of surviving. They don't have to have hives all the time. Keep them sunny and full of bees. Best I have found.

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"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

sc-bee; Did the SHB do your hives in or did you just move them? I notice fatbeeman/straightshooter (youtube) has a lot of hives in the shade. He uses political signs to control his beetles. He takes Crisco grease to seal up one end, then he puts boric acid in the middle and seals up the other end with Crisco. The Crisco is supposed to be an attractant.

I'm trying the cd trap today until I can get something better (if I need something better). What I did was take boric acid with Crisco grease and made a paste. I chipped off some of the cd clear edge on two sides so beetles can enter. I then used black electrical tape to cover the clear part and tape it shut. I'll keep yall posted on the results. I put two of them in the bottom entrance. The bait won't come out because of the paste. I may put one or two on the top tomorrow. I got off work too late to fool with it today.

I have found I can not keep bees at my home lot. It was my first year and I made splits and lost three of the 4. After that my bees started going to the neighbors bird bath, even though plenty of other water around and stung her dog. It was just easier to move the bees after that. I have slipped a nuc in and out after that, only for shb to take them.

A lot of Dons bees are in the sun and then he has the nucs up by the road in the pines. I think the soil content has a lot to do with it also. Or maybe just the roach poison. I had a friend that a lot of his bees in shaded pine lots. The soil was usually hard clay and I believe the pines make the soil a little acidic.

The boric acid thing well...... it is roach poison although some say it is organic. I am no chemist, I have no clue. A bee researcher at a nearby university told me about 5 yrs ago they were going to research the use of boric as a soft treatment, I think that is the way it was worded, but it has not happened as a released study that I am aware of.

Some put another roach poison in hives, fipronil. One guy even sell it off internet or his bee site. He gets buy with this by saying the product is not approved for bees. It is some bad stuff. Folks say well you put it in a trap. The beetles do not stay in the trap. They get the poison on them and walk all around the hive. Most anyway, some die in the traps.

For me right now the hives in the sun are working and I chose to put nothing inside my hives. Absolutely nothing..............